Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Re:Not enough (Score -1) 104

Your body contains about a kilogram of phosphorus. Your bones, teeth, and DNA are made of phosphorus.

And still, White Phosphorus is deadly in doses of less than 1 ppm. Enumerating elements is completely meaningless when talking about toxicity. What matters is the substance which contains the elements. And two chemically closely related substances can be harmless and absolutely toxic. Botulinum toxin, often called Botox for short, is deadly in doses above 2 ppt (or about 150 nanograms for a grown adult), and all it contains are the very same amino acids, which make up about 15% of your body weight.

Copper is necessary for human life.

Same silly argument.

Comment Re:Not enough (Score -1) 104

Phosphorus, especially in its modification called White Phosphorus, is one of the most toxic substances known to Man. Also, copper is pretty poisonous.

Luckily, posphorus is quite reactive (that's why it was used as an agent in matchsticks), oxidizes fast, and will form phosphoric acid when exposed to air, which indeed is not toxic. It is similar for copper, albeit some copper oxides are themselves toxic.

Comment Re:Weather report (Score 4, Informative) 195

Especially everyone supervising the operation of the Mystic summer camp should be made aware beforehand that they are in a flooding area, which would be under water even with less rain (but not catastrophically so), and be alert to the weather forecast for a possible evacuation. But people forget, and 20 years no flooding feels the same as totally impossible, and flooding itself is often seen as getting wet feet. The idea of being washed away by 45 feet of water was completely out of the minds of people.

Germany, which is known for being well organized, had a similar catastrophic flooding in 2021 (184 dead) in the Ahr Valley. Also here, the Weather Service had warned about heavy rainfall and possible catastrophic flooding, but it did not register with the people responsible for civil protection.

That's a real problem with once-in-a-century events. People just can't imagine the possible damage, and are completely unprepared or even consider preparations as wasteful and an obstacle to business, development or personal freedom.

Comment Re:The "record" only goes back 75 years (Score 1) 74

It sure is a pity that there's not multiple types of evidence from biological and geological data that corroborates and extends thermometer readings.

Oh wait, there is.

Let me save you the effort of your predictable reply: "I don't believe any of it. It's all bullshitt!!!!!!! Naah naah!!!"

Slashdot Top Deals

Your program is sick! Shoot it and put it out of its memory.

Working...